7 Mar
I have a confession to make before delving into this latest in a long line of cinematic attempts to convey the love and loss which poker and gambling bring in equal measure – I love movies. But I usually love them in a completely non-discerning way; I enjoy everything!
Bad acting? Who cares! Crap storyline? Doesn’t really matter!
Bad books I can’t stand, I’ll gladly throw them down after the very first chapter, but bad movies don’t bother me – I watch them to the end every time.
Which brings me to Mississippi Grind, Anne Boden and Ryan Fleck’s road movie about a down-on-his-luck degenerate gambler Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) and his new-found lucky charm Curtis (played by Ryan Reynolds). I loved it! And this time, because it revolved ostensibly around poker. I loved it while managing to criticize it from a poker-playing gambler’s viewpoint. Be advised, significant spoilers ahead.
I’ve never seen Mendelsohn’s acting skills before, but if Mississippi Grind is anything to go by, he’s one of the best out there. His take on the middle-aged gambler who has lost pretty much everything due to his insane need to win big or die trying conveys the character perfectly. He’s a likeable guy, sweet and funny, despite having lost his wife and daughter, all his money, much of his self-esteem, and being in debt to almost everybody in town.
Along comes Reynolds, taking his seat at the local poker tournament and instantly turning on the charm – and the bluffs. Initially his character appears to be the kind who will annoy the hell out of you, he is all smiles and bad anecdotes, but just as he wins over his fellow players – Gerry in particular – so too does he win over the audience.
In doing so, however, it’s hard to escape the feeling (in the first 2/3rds of the movie anyway) that Reynold’s character might not even exist except in the mind of Mendelsohn’s Gerry. There is always a feeling there that perhaps – as in Fight Club or even Sixth Sense – he is either a vision of Gerry’s wishful thinking, or a younger version of Gerry himself, one who lost his way through gambling, drinking, and women and has returned to lead the older version back to ‘safety’.
The road trip that the somewhat unlikely pair embark upon sees them travel down the Mississippi by land, stopping off enroute to build up a bankroll for the big game which Curtis has sold Gerry on playing. Again the directorial pair of Boden and Fleck tempt us into thinking that there MUST be something afoot – a scam of sorts which Curtis is working on Gerry. Why else would he take the ‘damaged bird’ character of Gerry and try to help him?
As the excellently-shot movie takes us from diner to casino to hotel – a panoramic-slice of southern US life played out to the best country and blues soundtrack you’ll hear in a movie – it becomes clear that Curtis himself is searching for some meaning, something to give his life substance, or redemption.
The gambling set-ups are very convincing; small-town casinos and tournaments, racetracks half-filled with like-minded gamblers, and home-games which don’t instantly make you feel that every poker game involves an evil millionaire criminal mastermind and a desperate loser trying desperately to pay off a debt by winning big.
Along the way, Gerry tries to steal from his ex-wife, lies bare-facedly to his ‘staker’ Curtis, sells off the last of his possessions to have one last shot at the big game – and consistently finds himself blowing every opportunity, or losing ‘unluckily’ whenever he seems set to turn the corner and make a success of himself.
It’s difficult for a poker player to watch such a movie – with a train-wreck gambler in the lead role – and not think at points ‘There but for the grace of…whoever…go I’. Chasing losses and needing to always have another shot (whether it’s ‘ Woodman’s Bourbon’ or another bet or both) is an inherent part of the psyche of many players, though most find ways to limit and control this destructive element. It seems that Gerry never will, and perhaps Curtis will never find the missing link to real happiness.
If this all seems fairly heavy going for a poker-road trip movie, then you’re probably right! Mississippi Grind is a sentimental drama on a journey through the heart of the south, and it’s a bloody good journey well worth watching! It never lacks interest, the actors never fail to impress, and the gambling scenes are spot on, if relatively short as a whole.
The ending? Well I won’t give anything away – but let’s just say it needs to be discussed with friends afterwards as it’s not entirely clear if what you see is actually what the movie is trying to show you! And if that last sentence requires some thought, then you’re on the right track to enjoy the movie. My verdict? An excellent 8/10!
